How to look after yourself for next to nothing.

If you feel like you're not taking care of yourself, it's time to change.

If Australia's collective grandmother asked the population 'are you looking after yourself?' the answer would be 'no'.

New research shows we're not taking care of our bodies and our sleep not to mention taking time for mental health and our main reason for this neglect is money.

The study of 1000 adults by healthcare and nutrition business Bayer Australia found 40 percent weren't looking after themselves as well as they'd like and 89 percent blamed poverty and lack of education as the key barriers to looking after their own health.

What Is Self Care?

Self-care is a coverall term for an individual's diet, sleep, exercise and mental health.

According to WHO, Self-Care is what people do for themselves to establish and maintain health, and to prevent and deal with illness.

The study found low and high-income earners had different views to their health, with 34 percent of low-income earners rating their health as very good compared to 55 percent of high-income earners.

Shutterstock / danilobiancalana
We all lack motivation some days.

The barriers to better self care for low-income earners were a lack of money and motivation while for high-income earners it was a lack of free time and lack of motivation.

Pharmaceutical Society of Australia self-care advisor John Bell said self care was sometimes a preventative measure for more serious (and more expensive) conditions.

"Preventative measures to maintain health or prevent disease need to be taken and can be as simple as a daily walk," Bell said.

"Half of the nation is living with a chronic disease of some form. Evidence shows that almost a third of these cases could be prevented by removing exposure to risk factors such as smoking, being overweight, alcohol use and physical inactivity."

If you find you're not getting enough sleep, try to keep a sleep diary for one month detailing how long your sleep was each night, and also the quality. See if you can determine whether anything out of the ordinary happens on nights of poor sleep -- like lack of exercise or different foods. And remember, naps count as part of your daily total.

Exercise

Not everyone can afford a 24-hour gym subscription or a personal training app but a daily 30-minute walk is entirely free.

Sylvain Sonnet
Walking is free. As is whimsical dancing precariously close to a waterway.